Zoo under fire over Flocke publicity effect

The latest German polar bear to capture the public imagination has confirmed her celebrity status with the appointment of a lawyer to protect her interests.

Four-month-old Flocke made her first public appearance before the cameras at Nuremberg zoo yesterday.

She has been touted as the natural successor to Knut, the polar bear cub who became a sensation at Berlin zoo last year but is now fully grown. Like Knut, Flocke was hand reared after her mother rejected her.

But Jürgen Ortmüller, chairman of the Whale and Dolphin Protection Forum, claims Knut's exposure to the public has damaged him and fears the same will happen to Flocke.

He is working with the high-profile German lawyer Ralf Bossi to challenge Nuremberg zoo in court, claiming that it is violating the country's animal protection laws which stipulate that animals in captivity should be brought up in a way approximating to life in the wild.

"The big problem is Knut is looking like a psychopath," Ortmüller told guardian.co.uk. "He is antisocial and he is doing what the visitors do. When people take photographs he makes the same actions. He is absolutely alone. The problem will be the same with Flocke in Nuremberg."

Staff separated Flocke from her mother after the parent began throwing her offspring around the enclosure on January 8.

A day earlier, the zoo's other female polar bear, Vilma, had eaten her two cubs. Polar bears and other carnivorous animals are sometimes known to take such actions when their cub is ill, refuses food or dies.

Like Knut, who appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair, Flocke already has her own website and a range of merchandise.

Pictures and videos of Flocke were posted on her website to whet the public's appetite ahead of the cub's unveiling to the press yesterday.

Ortmüller is sceptical about claims by Nuremberg zoo director, Dag Encke, that Flocke's most important contribution would be to highlight the threat posed by global warming.

"Berlin zoo has got €5m from Knut and this will be the same with Flocke," said Ortmüller. "It's only about money."